Keywords: music, traditional culture preservation, social criticism, Italy

Published in: Etnopolis, former magazine of the NGO Sos-Racisme Catalonia, an organization that works in favor of anti-racism, diversity and integration of immigrants. Originally written in Catalan.

Date: October 1998

WRITING

Revolutionary Italian Tammurriatas

The music of E Zezi convey the rage and impotence for the lost of popular traditions and cultural essence

The Zeza was one of the characters of an old traditional feast of fertility that was performed in the streets of Naples, and this is where this band of traditional music engaged with the preservation of the national identity and the defense of human rights took its name. E Zezi was one of the bands who played in the sixth Festival of Diversity, held at the Moll de la Fusta last May, and they are a group of twelve Neapolitans (only one woman among them, the vocalist) who decided to devote themselves to music 25 years ago.

They are a gruppo operaio, i.e., a group of workers who were drawn to the defense of their cultural identity when it started to be destroyed by the industrialization in the Southern region of Italy, the Campania, in the early 70s. This defense materializes in their lyrics, in the instruments they play and in their language, the specific dialect of Naples, of which they explore the oldest expressions.

The fact is that E Zezi are not one more folk band, following the catalogation of other bands with similar musical orientation and born during the same period. E Zezi have managed to become the bridge between these bands born in the 70s and the youngest ones by researching and experimenting with traditional music and mixing it with rock, reggae and rap in their songs.

When asked by the link between the company and the spirit of the Festival of Diversity, Angelo de Falco, trumpet and known as the father of the band, doesnít hesitate to answer that people in Naples have traditionally been sensitive to difference and the acquaintance of other cultures. For him, this is the most defining feature of the character of the inhabitants of this region of Italy. Antonio Fraioli, violin and drums, adds: "historically, due to its geographic position, Naples has received many influences from the Arabian culture, Spain... it's a harbour city, which has experienced many dominations, and also in this sense it has a very strong cultural identity".

Groaning drums

On the stage modern instruments harmonize with popular and simple ones, as the Neapolitan tammurra, a big tambourine, the campanelli, a little accordion, pans and spoons, and also other gadgets rescued from old traditions. This is the case of the tamburro, a big drum played by the women in certain villages in special events, and cascahuelas, tiny percussion instruments, or the double Latin flute, both know in the age of the Roman Empire, as some frescos in Pompeia prove.

Actually instruments are a communication vehicle by themselves. If some people have detected in their tammurriatas the claim in popular demonstrations, drums can also express joy. The heart of the Southern Italians beats in the music of E Zezi, so Antonio admits that their rhythms also transmit rage and impotence because of the disappearance of popular traditions, and therefore the lost of their cultural essence.

The gruppo operaio obtains their lyrics from the major problems of the world, the society and the individual, so their songs contain a clear political and claiming message. Angelo de Falco has a strong conviction: "progress brings partial and limited knowledge of things, and the concept of modernity in our society evolves in the wrong direction, since tragedies as Chernobyl still happen".

Social condemnation

Two of the leitmotivs in the lyrics of E Zezi are the attack against capitalism and corruption, but they are specially blunt with criminality, a very widespread problem in Southern Italy. The Neapolitan camorra, and also the mafia in Sicilia have strong roots in the area, and they affect not only private companies, but also public institutions. De Falco explains that the music industry canít be effective due to the camorra, that limits the arrival and departure of traditional music materials. Furthermore, during the last ten years, many capos of the organized criminality in Naples have moved to Albany, where they have totally transformed the real artistic and musical panorama, and they have left the country as burnt land from the cultural point of view. In spite of the difficulty to get new rhythms, Naples does receive representative samples of the music of all over the world. From all of them, E Zezi are particularly interested in Andalusia, since they compare it with Naples in the sense that they consider both regions as musical springs in their respective countries.

The concert distils Mediterranean taste from the very first chords, and the musicians transmit great energy and enthusiasm. In their songs there's the will to reproduce the atmosphere of popular festivals, to propose new rhythms to their audience, a new dance, the one from their cultural tradition, but above all, the will to communicate a different and more human way to meet people.